INDIA: Church Planting Among the Unreached

National Geographic June 2003 wrote on India’s “Untouchables” as facing violence and discrimination. More than 160 million people in India are considered “Untouchable”—people, tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure and less than human. Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: “Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers”; “Dalit tortured by cops for three days.”

Yesupadam and Family

Yesupadam, founder of Love-n-Care Ministries International, was himself an ‘untouchable’ Dalit and most of those they help are from the low castes, the ‘untouchables’ and also the tribal people who are lower than untouchables. The ‘untouchables’ are vulnerable to harsh religious and socio-economic discrimination. Nearly 90 percent of all the poor Indians and 95 percent of all the illiterate Indians are Dalits. These children are brought to Rev. Yesupadam’s Love-n-Care (LNC) Homes, and are provided education through their two schools. The ministry also includes a hospital, a vocational center to train those who are disabled from polio in computers, printing and sewing, and train others in a Nursing School. LNC will be starting an Industrial Training Institute soon as well. However, the main ministry of LNC is to church plant in the poor untouchable villages and tribal mountain areas, which involves constructing buildings to serve as meeting places for the believers.

~ Love-n-Care Ministries International, Rev. Padam Paidipamula

Website: www.lncministries.org

Most of their church plants are to the unreached tribal people in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Chattishgarh in the Eastern Ghats’ mountain range, and many of those in their Children Homes are from the tribal area. They build numerous new churches and church structures in these tribal areas.